The Best Birthday Present!

Dear Diary,

I received the most wonderful birthday present this week.  The painting which my father sent home during WWII from central Europe and which always hung in my Aunt Doris's house was given to me by her daughter who had inherited it when my aunt died in 1999.  I'd always hoped to have a copy made of it someday but she decided to give me the original.  It just fits over my fireplace and I am thrilled beyond words to see it hanging there.

It isn't because it is valuable monetarily in any way.  It is the connection with my father and my dear aunt that makes it priceless to me.  I use to sit on the piano bench in front of this painting when I was a little girl 60+ years ago and imagine walking that road into the town.  It always seemed such an enchanting place...a place of perpetual springtime.  I can smell of flowering trees and fresh new grass.  Now I can do that everyday thanks to my cousins gracious gift...that little girl is still there deep inside it seems.